I used to freeze a lot of meals. I would just make enough for 2 when I cooked--like a lasagna for the night I made them, and one for the freezer. Now with the size of our family + 3 gluten free kids, it takes up so. much. space. to freeze meals. I've pretty much gotten out of the habit of doing that which is a shame, it's super handy.

What we use our freezer for the most is bulk meat. Like we just had 2 pigs butchered. We often buy 1/2 a beef. Sometimes find a stellar sale on chicken. Stuff like that.

We do still use it for gluten free stuff--I try to have a few things on hand for them, like I will make and freeze a pizza, or an extra loaf of bread.

We freeze fruit for the off season. So if berries are on sale ridiculously cheap we buy a bunch, freeze what we aren't going to eat fresh on a baking sheet, then bag it and leave it in the fridge for smoothies or for winter when buying off season fruit would break the bank.

My inlaws keep their important paperwork in the freezer. Does that help?

EVERYTHING.
Almost any casserole freezes well, excluding mayonnaise-based stuff.
Meat in marinades is one of our go-tos. It marinates as it thaws all day and can be baked, grilled, or fried in a skillet.
Frozen fruits and veggies.
Taco meat makes a quick meal.
Shredded cheese (sliced or blocks won't do that well).
Individually wrapped hot sandwiches or burritos.
Homemade pizza kits.
Cookie dough.
Applesauce.
Bread.

EVERYTHING.
Almost any casserole freezes well, excluding mayonnaise-based stuff.
Meat in marinades is one of our go-tos. It marinates as it thaws all day and can be baked, grilled, or fried in a skillet.
Frozen fruits and veggies.
Taco meat makes a quick meal.
Shredded cheese (sliced or blocks won't do that well).
Individually wrapped hot sandwiches or burritos.
Homemade pizza kits.
Cookie dough.
Applesauce.
Bread.

I'm kind of obsessed with putting things in the freezer.

I knew I came to the right place for ideas!

How do you keep track of what you have?

If I can figure out organization I can see this being really helpful/useful.

Homemade pizza kits. I'm intrigued!

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If I can figure out organization I can see this being really helpful/useful.

Homemade pizza kits. I'm intrigued!

Shredded cheese is a big one I do too! Also lunch meat. I like to buy the big packs and seperate it into smaller bags and freeze it so it doesn't go bad. But since you have a bigger family you probably wouldn't have that issue. Also, I used to freeze PB&Js when DS1 took his school to lunch.

We used to make big batches of whole wheat waffles and freeze the leftovers so my husband could have a real breakfast before he left for work at 4 am (doing custodial work while he was in college). Heat in toaster and they are wonderful. Now we make big batches of waffles and the leftovers only last a day or so with my brood eating them up.

Mel of Mels Kitchen Cafe has several burrito recipes that work well with freezing, plus instructions about how to defrost them. I'm making her super bean burritos tonight, and thinking about making a double batch so I can freeze some for my husband to take to work. They have a freezer there he can keep them in and eat one or two a day for lunch.

I love frozen berries and frozen bananas for smoothies. Spinach works well when you freeze it for smoothies too. Bread - I always make 4 loaves and freeze 2 or 3. Tortillas. Pasta sauce. Freezer jam. Fresh squeezed orange or grapefruit juice is great to freeze in winter/spring and mash into slush on those hot summer days - so refreshing!

__________________
Happy wife of one & grateful mama of six
[AKA BRXB ]

If I can figure out organization I can see this being really helpful/useful.

Homemade pizza kits. I'm intrigued!

I keep a list. When I put something in, I write it down; when I take something out, I cross it off. But the list still gets out of date fast, so I reorganize periodically and refresh my memory. Also when I make a meal plan out (like for a week or 2 at a time) I try to look in the freezer and see what needs used up; usually meat.

I'll try to find the dough recipe I use, but basically I make a big batch if pizza dough and freeze it in balls big enough for one pizza per sandwich baggie. I make pizza sauce and do the same, brown a few pounds of sausage and divide into baggies, mushrooms, pepperoni, cheese, etc. Then 1 sandwich baggie of each goes into a gallon baggie. Get it out in the morning to thaw and let the dough rise all day; bake for dinner. It works great for us because we're few - cans of mushrooms/olives/pepperoni are all more than one dinner-sized pizza can use. For you, I'd probably leave that stuff in cans and just put dough, sauce, and meat in your kits. There's no advantage to freezing canned stuff if you're not breaking it into smaller aliquots.

ETA: looks like there are many freezer pizza dough recipes online, including one by pioneer woman, but the one I use is from the book, Not Your Mother's Make Ahead and Freeze Cookbook. It's a very basic dough recipe though. Nothing special. I will say that shredded cheese is awesome to freeze, but you kind of have to thaw the whole bag to get some out, so putting pizza sized bags of cheese or sizes for other things you do a lot can be very helpful. The huge bags of cheese at Costco are much cheaper than my other grocery stores.

I used to freeze a lot of meals. I would just make enough for 2 when I cooked--like a lasagna for the night I made them, and one for the freezer. Now with the size of our family + 3 gluten free kids, it takes up so. much. space. to freeze meals. I've pretty much gotten out of the habit of doing that which is a shame, it's super handy.

What we use our freezer for the most is bulk meat. Like we just had 2 pigs butchered. We often buy 1/2 a beef. Sometimes find a stellar sale on chicken. Stuff like that.

We do still use it for gluten free stuff--I try to have a few things on hand for them, like I will make and freeze a pizza, or an extra loaf of bread.

We freeze fruit for the off season. So if berries are on sale ridiculously cheap we buy a bunch, freeze what we aren't going to eat fresh on a baking sheet, then bag it and leave it in the fridge for smoothies or for winter when buying off season fruit would break the bank.

My inlaws keep their important paperwork in the freezer. Does that help?

I was thinking that I would just cook double and put part away. People around me buy 1/2 cows etc. I never have due to space. I also have a farmer down the road that sells his ground meat at least for reasonable prices. I wonder if he would discount for bulk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmrotski

Shredded cheese is a big one I do too! Also lunch meat. I like to buy the big packs and seperate it into smaller bags and freeze it so it doesn't go bad. But since you have a bigger family you probably wouldn't have that issue. Also, I used to freeze PB&Js when DS1 took his school to lunch.

I use milk crates to seperate stuff in my chest freezer.

Recently lunch meat was on sale and we overbought and kind of worried it would go bad. Nope. They are it all. I like the milk crate idea. I was wondering how it doesn't become a black hole. I'm going to need some partition sytem.

I like the option of having extra food on hand because we sometimes people stop by and stay for dinner. This would make it so much easier than inventing stuff on the fly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BRXB

We used to make big batches of whole wheat waffles and freeze the leftovers so my husband could have a real breakfast before he left for work at 4 am (doing custodial work while he was in college). Heat in toaster and they are wonderful. Now we make big batches of waffles and the leftovers only last a day or so with my brood eating them up.

Mel of Mels Kitchen Cafe has several burrito recipes that work well with freezing, plus instructions about how to defrost them. I'm making her super bean burritos tonight, and thinking about making a double batch so I can freeze some for my husband to take to work. They have a freezer there he can keep them in and eat one or two a day for lunch.

I love frozen berries and frozen bananas for smoothies. Spinach works well when you freeze it for smoothies too. Bread - I always make 4 loaves and freeze 2 or 3. Tortillas. Pasta sauce. Freezer jam. Fresh squeezed orange or grapefruit juice is great to freeze in winter/spring and mash into slush on those hot summer days - so refreshing!

Yay thank you!!! My dh leaves at 5:30. He always has granola.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elchorrito

I keep a list. When I put something in, I write it down; when I take something out, I cross it off. But the list still gets out of date fast, so I reorganize periodically and refresh my memory. Also when I make a meal plan out (like for a week or 2 at a time) I try to look in the freezer and see what needs used up; usually meat.

I'll try to find the dough recipe I use, but basically I make a big batch if pizza dough and freeze it in balls big enough for one pizza per sandwich baggie. I make pizza sauce and do the same, brown a few pounds of sausage and divide into baggies, mushrooms, pepperoni, cheese, etc. Then 1 sandwich baggie of each goes into a gallon baggie. Get it out in the morning to thaw and let the dough rise all day; bake for dinner. It works great for us because we're few - cans of mushrooms/olives/pepperoni are all more than one dinner-sized pizza can use. For you, I'd probably leave that stuff in cans and just put dough, sauce, and meat in your kits. There's no advantage to freezing canned stuff if you're not breaking it into smaller aliquots.

ETA: looks like there are many freezer pizza dough recipes online, including one by pioneer woman, but the one I use is from the book, Not Your Mother's Make Ahead and Freeze Cookbook. It's a very basic dough recipe though. Nothing special. I will say that shredded cheese is awesome to freeze, but you kind of have to thaw the whole bag to get some out, so putting pizza sized bags of cheese or sizes for other things you do a lot can be very helpful. The huge bags of cheese at Costco are much cheaper than my other grocery stores.

I like that. Pizza is a favorite here and it would make life much easier if I could just throw it together.

__________________ Here to help if I can.
Shameless referral links: Soft Star shoes are awesome. Buy them here. PM me your email for 15% of your first Boden purchase.